Untitled by Keith Austin Lewis (2013)

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Description 201324' x 24'Oil on Canvas

Keith Austin Lewis, New York
Member Since September 2013
Artist Statement My work revolves around the central theme of memory as it disintegrates, evolves and solidifies in our recollection with varying degrees of clarity. I create a series of images that undulate through darkness and light, subtly revealing enough to viewers to trigger their unconscious while still remaining hidden in meaning and connotation. This ambiguity places the task of interpretation onto the observer and serves as a mechanism to engage their own memories, thereby encouraging an attribution of their own meaning and significance to each image.

I work in a unique manner, using a limited palette of oil paint without solvent or medium. This is done to achieve a rich saturation of pigment and an almost dry application to the canvas. In this way I am able to create a hazy atmospheric effect to convey the uncertainty and discomfort that the exploration of my images require. In working monochromatically, I am able to highlight only what I wish the viewer to absorb and downplay or obscure everything else.

My work takes inspiration from the theatrical chiaroscuro paintings of Caravaggio, late-nineteenth century Symbolism and Tonalism, and nineteenth century photography. Following undergraduate schoolwork in psychology, I studied under figurative painter Mark Greenwold at the University at Albany in Albany, NY where he culled and refined the psychological undercurrents in my work. The results reveal in my work a naïve sensitivity and a darkness bourn of skepticism, a reflection of the dichotomy of innocence and experience that define our transformative interpretation of memory as we change and grow.